Ontario Updates Incentives for Green Vehicles

March 13, 2018 at 1:02 PM

Ontario is updating the way it calculates rebates for electrified cars and expanding the program to include fuel cell vehicles.

The new program maintains the top incentive rate of C$14,000 ($11,000) but will now be based on a vehicle’s seating capacity and all-electric driving range. Vehicles can earn as much as C$10,000 for their electric range and as much as C$7,000 for seating or C$14,000 overall. The lowest combined rate for eligible vehicles is C$5,000.

Incentives will no longer be provided for models that have a starting price of C$75,000 ($58,500) or more. This reverses Ontario’s decision last year to remove the C$3,000 incentive cap for electrified vehicles priced between C$75,000 and C$150,000, which helped fuel record sales of Tesla’s Model X and Model S EVs last year in Canada.

To qualify for the new incentives, buyers must own a vehicle for at least a year or lease it for three years. Among the vehicles that qualify for the full C$14,000 are the Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid minivan and all-electric models such as the Chevrolet Bolt, Ford Focus, Hyundai Ioniq, Kia Soul, Nissan Leaf and Volkswagen e-Golf.

A full list of eligible vehicles and their incentives is available here. Ontario also is expanding its C$1,000 incentive program for fast-charging systems to cover all EV owners in the province.

Ontario says it has provided more than C$150 million ($116 million) in incentives to some 15,000 buyers of electrified vehicles since mid-2010. Another C$2.5 million has gone for the installation of more than 3,000 home charging stations. The province aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels by 15% in 2020, 37% in 2030 and 80% in 2050.